Scituate pushing to meet deadline for Gates School project

SCITUATE – Architects are working to complete a final plan and budget for the proposed new Gates Intermediate School by Oct. 2.

School Superintendent John McCarthy said the town’s final submission to the Massachusetts School Building Authority must be made by that date in preparation for the Nov. 19 meeting of the building authority’s board of directors.

“So we have essentially one month remaining to finalize the schematic design for the new school and develop a firm cost estimate,” McCarthy said.

After months of meetings that included McCarthy, the town’s school building committee and representatives from the Dore and Whittier architectural firm and the project manager, Daedalus Projects Inc., a plan to build a new Gates Intermediate School at the high school was chosen.

McCarthy said architects from Dore and Whittier are “working against the clock” to meet the October deadline.

“They’re not sleeping,” he said. “We’re in a accelerated process.”

At this point, McCarthy said, “we have preliminary floor plans for the interior of the school, conceptual drawings of what a typical team space, classrooms and common areas would look like, and some very early working sketches of the exterior of the building.

“In addition, we have preliminary floor plans of a new performing arts center, as well as a site plan.”

One of the challenges the architects are dealing with is the auditorium.

“The challenge with the performing arts center is ensuring that it addresses all our programmatic needs for the middle school, high school and the community while staying within our budget,” McCarthy said.

A meeting of the school committee, the school building committee and the board of selectmen will be held before final plans are submitted to the state. The Massachusetts School Building Authority requires town officials to endorse the final plan and budget, McCarthy said.

If the state accepts the project and voters support it, the town could receive state reimbursement of 40 to 44 percent.

Voters at a special town meeting in the fall of 2012 approved $750,000 for a project feasibility study. State assistance cannot be obtained unless a feasibility study has been done.

The study will look at the school district as a whole and how a middle school fits into the picture.

More public meetings will be scheduled once the plan has been further developed, McCarthy said.

Reach Ruth Thompson at rthompson@wickedlocal.com.

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